In the manufacture of certain types of electrical connectors, the connector housing is fed along a feed track of an automated machine to a workstation for insertion of the metal contacts and metal hold down clips that are used to engage a hole in a circuit board for securing the connector to the board. Such a system works well only when the parts to be inserted are in mutual alignment or, where some are out of alignment, there is additional insertion tooling for those parts. In the case where a hold down clip is inserted in one end of the connector housing at one level with respect to the feed track and an identical clip is inserted in the other end of the housing at a different level, either the track must be shifted to realign the housing for the second insertion, or the housing must be arranged on a conventional X-Y table for providing the required orthogonal motion for proper positioning. Alternatively, the insertion head may be moved instead of shifting the housing, however, such a structure would be complex and expensive to manufacture. If the track is shifted the associated feed mechanism, including drive motors and drive trains, must also be shifted resulting in a substantial mass that must be moved. This, of course, requires larger drive motors and supporting structure that may adversely affect performance. However, the convenient flow of the parts along the track, that is an advantage characteristic of this type of feed mechanism, is preserved. When a conventional X-Y table is utilized instead of a feed track, the connector housing must then be manipulated by conventional pick and place equipment, thereby adding to the complexity and cost of the machine. Such use of an X-Y table will likely increases machine cycle time and may introduce reliability problems. This arrangement does not have the convenient flow of housings inherent in the feed track system. Additionally, one or more of the drive motors of the X-Y table is usually included in the mass that is moved. In any structure that requires that the drive motors be part of the mechanism that is moved, required electrical wiring that powers and controls the motors must necessarily be part of the moving mass as well. This adds to the mass and introduces other considerations such as flexibility 0f the wires and their possible failure due to fatigue.
What is needed is a connector housing positioning mechanism that preserves the convenient flow of housings offered by the feed track system while providing orthogonal motion for accurately positioning the housing for insertion of parts at different levels with respect to the feed track, and while minimizing the complexity and the amount of mass of the moving mechanism.